Mabel Says — Shopify SEO Metadata Checker

Find out what's wrong with your Shopify SEO, what it means, and exactly how to fix it.

Works with Claude and AI assistants: Run Shopify SEO audits through Apify MCP and ask your AI assistant to explain what needs fixing.

Built for everyday Shopify store owners—not just SEO specialists. Paste your store URL, run the audit, and get plain-English explanations with Shopify Admin (or theme) fix steps for each problem.

This Actor runs on the Apify platform: schedule audits, export CSV/JSON, call it from the API, use it from Claude (and other MCP clients), or plug it into Zapier, Make, or n8n.

Why store owners use this

Search listings and social previews start with on-page details: titles, descriptions, headings, and preferred URLs. When those are missing, duplicated, or unclear, shoppers get a weaker first impression.

Mabel Says checks the pages on your public Shopify storefront and tells you:

1. What’s wrong — in everyday language
2. Why it matters — honest impact, without fake “rank #1” promises
3. How to fix it — clear steps
4. Where to fix it — Shopify Admin search engine listing, theme code, or a developer task

You do not need to know HTML, canonical tags, or SEO jargon to use the report.

What the tool checks

On each audited page:

Check	Store-owner meaning
Page title	The clickable name search engines may show
Meta description	The short summary under that title
Main heading (H1)	The big on-page heading customers see
Canonical URL	The “preferred” address for this page
Open Graph tags	How the link can look when shared on social apps
Robots / noindex	Whether the page asks search engines not to list it
Duplicate titles & descriptions	Same wording reused on more than one page in this audit

What you receive after a run

Each dataset row is one unique page, including:

• The metadata we found (title, description, H1, canonical, Open Graph)
• A custom heuristic score (0–100) — labeled scoreType: custom_heuristic_v1
  This is not an official Google score and does not predict rankings
• A simple issues list (compatible with older exports)
• issueDetails — structured plain-English guidance for every issue, sorted High → Medium → Low
• CSV-friendly “top issue” fields so spreadsheets stay readable

How to read priorities

Priority	Meaning
High	Important problems that deserve prompt review (for example missing title or meta description, broken canonical, noindex)
Medium	Worth fixing soon (for example duplicates within this audit, failed page loads)
Low	Optional polish (title/description length guidance, missing Open Graph tags)

Errors are genuine detected gaps. Recommendations (length guidance, Open Graph) are best-practice tips—not confirmed Google ranking errors.

Example: missing meta description

Before (technical-style issue string):
Missing meta description

After (plain English in issueDetails / top-issue fields):

• Issue: Missing meta description
• What this means: Your page does not have its own description for search engines to consider showing under the title in search results.
• Why it matters: A useful description can help shoppers understand what the page offers before they click.
• How to fix it: Write a unique description that explains what someone will find on this page.
• Where to fix it: Shopify Admin → Products → open the product → Search engine listing → Edit

Theme-level items (H1, canonical) point to Online Store → Themes → Edit code (or a developer)—not the product editor. See Shopify theme SEO metadata.

Who benefits

• Shopify store owners who want a clear to-do list without SEO jargon
• Marketing teams who need a repeatable metadata checklist
• Agencies & freelancers who want scored JSON/CSV for client reports
• Developers who still get full technical fields and issue codes
• Claude / AI assistant users who want to run audits through Apify MCP and get plain-English fix guidance in chat

How to run (3 steps)

1. Paste your Shopify store homepage into Start URLs (for example https://your-store.com).
2. Set Max pages to audit (try 25–50 first). Keep concurrency at 1 and delay at 2 unless you know the store can handle more.
3. Click Start, open the Dataset tab, and use the Store owner summary view (or export CSV/JSON).

Optional: set Locale filter (for example en) to focus on one language/market. Multilingual stores are supported; leave the filter empty to audit all locales discovered in the crawl.

Run Shopify SEO Audits from Claude

You can use Shopify SEO Metadata Checker directly from Claude Chat or Claude Desktop through Apify's MCP integration.

How to connect:

1. Open Claude → Settings → Connectors.
2. Select Add → Add custom connector.
3. Name the connector Apify.
4. Enter https://mcp.apify.com as the remote MCP server URL.
5. Authorize your Apify account.
6. Ask Claude to run mabelsays/shopify-seo-metadata-checker.

Example prompt:

Use the Mabel Says Shopify SEO Metadata Checker to audit 100 pages of myshop.com. Explain the most important SEO issues in simple English, show me which pages need attention, and tell me how to fix each problem in Shopify.

Customers must connect Apify and authorize Actor runs. Applicable Apify Actor charges still apply.

Full setup guide: Apify Claude Desktop integration.

Example input

{
    "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://mabelloveco.com" }],
    "maxRequestsPerCrawl": 50,
    "maxConcurrency": 1,
    "sameDomainDelaySecs": 2,
    "localeFilter": "",
    "checkProducts": true,
    "checkCollections": true,
    "checkPages": true,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Example output (abbreviated)

{
    "url": "https://mabelloveco.com/products/example",
    "pageType": "product",
    "title": null,
    "metaDescription": null,
    "issues": ["Missing title tag", "Missing meta description"],
    "issueDetails": [
        {
            "code": "missing_title",
            "issue": "Missing page title",
            "whatThisMeans": "This page has no title for browsers and search results to use.",
            "whyItMatters": "Without a title, shoppers and search engines get little context about the page. This is a real on-page gap, not a ranking guarantee.",
            "howToFix": "Add a clear, unique page title that names the product, collection, or page. Avoid leaving the search engine listing blank.",
            "whereToFix": "Shopify Admin → Products → open the product → Search engine listing → Edit",
            "priority": "High",
            "kind": "error"
        }
    ],
    "topPriority": "High",
    "topIssue": "Missing page title",
    "topIssueHowToFix": "Add a clear, unique page title that names the product, collection, or page. Avoid leaving the search engine listing blank.",
    "topIssueWhereToFix": "Shopify Admin → Products → open the product → Search engine listing → Edit",
    "score": 55,
    "scoreType": "custom_heuristic_v1",
    "scoreNote": "Custom heuristic score (0–100). Not an official Google ranking score. Severe on-page gaps weigh more than length or Open Graph recommendations.",
    "fetchStatus": "ok"
}

Failed fetches still appear with fetchStatus: "failed" so you can see what could not be audited. They are not billed.

Fixing common issues in Shopify

Problem	Typical fix location
Missing / weak title or meta description	Admin → product, collection, or page → Search engine listing (storefront SEO metafields)
Homepage title / description	Admin → Online Store → Preferences (or theme overrides)
Missing or multiple H1, bad canonical	Theme (layout/theme.liquid / canonical_url) — often needs a developer (theme SEO metadata)
Missing Open Graph image on a product	Product Media (featured image), then theme OG markup if still missing
Duplicate title/description	Rewrite the listing for that product/page; duplicates are only detected among pages in this run

This Actor never edits your store. It only reads public HTML.

Pricing

What you pay for	Event name	Price (FREE tier)
Each successfully audited page	audited-page	$0.004
Actor start	apify-actor-start	$0.00005 (one event per GB of memory, minimum one)

• You pay only for successful SEO audits (fetchStatus: "ok"). Failed fetches and duplicate skips are not charged.
• There is no separate platform-usage charge on top of these events (standard pay-per-event).
• Example: 100 successful pages ≈ $0.40 in audited-page charges, plus the small Actor-start fee.

Input fields

Field	Default	Description
Start URLs	https://mabelloveco.com	Storefront homepage (or other seed URLs)
Max pages to audit	50	Cap on pages fetched this run
Max concurrency	1	Parallel fetches (keep low to avoid 429s)
Delay between requests	2	Seconds between same-domain requests
Locale filter	empty	e.g. en / en-us, or empty for all locales
Include product / collection / content pages	true	Toggle URL types
Proxy	off	Optional Apify Proxy

Scoring (custom heuristic — not Google)

Severity	Examples	Impact
Severe	Missing title/meta/H1, bad canonical	Larger deductions
Soft	Title/meta length guidance, missing OG tags	Small deductions
Cross-page	Duplicate title or meta description	Modest deductions

scoreType is always custom_heuristic_v1. It does not predict Google rankings or sales.

Integrations & automation

Use cases: one-off store audits in Apify Console, scheduled crawls, CSV exports for agencies, and AI-assisted reviews where an assistant explains issueDetails in plain English.

Apify MCP: This Actor works with the Apify MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com), so compatible AI clients can search for, run, and read results from mabelsays/shopify-seo-metadata-checker. Claude setup is covered above; Apify also documents MCP connections for ChatGPT and Cursor. You must authorize Apify and Actor runs; standard Actor charges (including $0.004 per successfully audited page) still apply.

API / Zapier / Make / n8n: Use the Apify API or client libraries to start a run with the same JSON input as Console. Results are available from the default dataset (/items) as JSON or CSV. Existing field names (issues, score, titleOk, duplicate flags, etc.) remain for compatibility; new guidance fields are additive.

Limitations

• Works best on public Shopify HTML storefronts. Heavy bot protection may block some URLs (recorded as failed, not charged).
• Respects robots.txt; disallowed URLs are skipped.
• Polite defaults (concurrency 1 + delay) make large catalogs slower by design.
• Duplicate detection covers only pages included in this audit.
• Does not edit your theme or Shopify Admin.
• Structured data / JSON-LD is not scored in this version (metadata focus).
• Does not promise higher rankings or sales.

FAQ

Do I need SEO experience?

No. Start with the Store owner summary dataset view and follow Where to fix for each top issue.

Is scraping Shopify stores allowed?

Only crawl storefronts you are allowed to access. Follow the site’s robots.txt and terms. This Actor is built for legitimate SEO audits of stores you own or have permission to analyze.

How is this different from a generic metadata scraper?

It is Shopify-aware (sitemap products/collections/pages), explains issues in plain English with Admin/theme fix paths, scores with a documented heuristic, and flags cross-page duplicate titles and meta descriptions within the run.

Why did I get fewer unique pages than max pages?

Duplicates (trailing slash / redirects), locale filtering, robots.txt skips, or failed fetches can reduce unique successful audits. Logs report attempted, succeeded, failed, and skippedDuplicates.

Do failed pages cost money under PPE?

No. Only the audited-page event is charged, and only for successful audits.

Can I run this on a schedule?

Yes — use Apify Schedules, then export the dataset or send it to your tools via integrations.

Support

Open an Issue on the Actor page in Apify Console, or contact the developer through your Apify account messaging. Custom Shopify SEO workflows (bulk stores, agency dashboards) can be discussed on request.

Development notes

npm install
npm test
apify validate-schema
apify run

Local input: storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json.